By Alex Comstock
Across much of the country, a well timed cold front is blowing through here at the end of October. Cold temps, late October, and more mature buck movement signifies one thing - the rut is on the horizon. The "pre-rut" or the time of the year when does aren't necessarily ready to breed yet, but bucks are starting to ramp up is officially here. Subsequently, there will be more antlers rattled together and grunt tubes blown on in the next month than the rest of the year.
I feel as though there are a few things to be thinking about when calling right now, compared to the peak of the rut say in mid November. In the next week or two, here are four things you should be thinking about in regards to calling.
1. Analyze Buck Behavior First
When I'm determining if I should attempt to call to a buck, I want to analyze everything I can about his behavior first. For instance, if I watch a buck tear up a scrape, proceed to make a big rub, and just look pissed off, he's a good candidate to call to. I might give him a subtle grunt first, or even jump right into a snort wheeze.
On the other hand, even if it is the last week of October, if a buck is walking nonchalantly through an area, and doesn't seem very aggressive, he might not be as susceptible to calling at that very moment. If you can identify this first, and then you give him a subtle grunt and he doesn't pay any attention to it, you won't be as tempted to keep calling. There's nothing worse than continually grunting at a buck that isn't displaying any rutting behavior, and educating him.
2. Gauge A Buck's Interest
This is pretty similar to analyzing a buck's behavior, but it's understanding how a buck responds to a call. Inevitably, you will be wrong with your assessment of a buck's behavior, and it can be important to read that. If you grunt at a buck while he is walking away and he immediately stops and looks your way, you know he is at least interested. In this case, I might let him look around a bit, and as soon as he turns his attention away from the area, I'll throw out another grunt to get him curious again. If I grunt at a buck, and he starts getting aggressive, whether that be thrashing a tree or scrape, I might be more inclined to snort wheeze to challenge him.
What you also want to realize is when a buck isn't interested in your call. Even if a buck appears to be displaying aggressive behavior, he might not give a care in the world about your calling. He could be headed for a certain destination, or have something completely different on his mind. In this case, just because you witnessed his previous behavior, I wouldn't continue to call. If a buck isn't interested, cut your losses.
3. Know What Type of Area You're Hunting
Understanding what kind of area you are hunting plays a large role not only in how much you should call, but what type of calls to use. Are you in an open area, where a buck can look and see what's going on from afar without investigating? Or is it fairly thick, where if you grunted at a buck, he may have to head your way to see what made the sound? These are all things that should be running through your head. During the pre-rut, if I'm hunting an open area, I may even bring a decoy to compliment my calling. This is a whole different can of worms that I'm not going to open now, but a decoy can be a great tool to use in a field, food plot, or somewhere where if you rattle or grunt at a buck that's a long ways away, he can see the decoy.
In an open area such as this, a buck doesn't have to come within bow range to investigate. A decoy on this hunt last November would have been handy.
4. Don't Overdue It
This time of the year, people get excited. I'm guilty as anyone. You hit the woods when it's cold, there's that "feeling" in the air, and you know the rut is right around the corner. What do a lot of hunters want to do? Pick up the rattling antlers and start wrecking havoc. Grabbing the grunt tube and going to town. Except, going to town on calling isn't always the best plan of action. Instead, realize that a well timed grunt or tinkle of the antlers might be all you need. A little goes a long way, at least that's how I think of it.
A common phrase I hear a lot of people use is "I threw the kitchen sink at him" which is basically describing that fact that you tried everything possible, and the buck still didn't come in to the calling. Not often do I hear that phrase with "and then he came right in" at the end. There's usually a reason a buck doesn't commit to a certain call, and in most cases, overdoing it will hurt you. Don't be afraid to be aggressive, but remember that timing is everything.
Conclusion
The next month is the most fun time of the year to be in the deer woods. You never know what could happen, and that notion alone is what excites many people. When it comes to rattling, grunting, doe bleating, etc. it can be a lot of fun to be doing that, and hoping for it to work. Just remember that calling isn't always a shoe in for success, but when used properly, it might help you seal the deal on a mature buck.
By Kaleb Comstock
I believe scouting is the single most important thing a person can do to help themselves be more successful in the fall. In this blog I am going to dive a little deeper into scouting and what I’m exactly doing and looking for as I scout. I am going to talk about how important and how to use online maps as well as discuss what I am looking for when I have my boots on the ground.
By Jeremy Lopez
Elk hunting is an exhilarating experience that challenges both your physical fitness and mental fortitude. Hunting elk with a bow in hand in the Rocky Mountains of the West is on every bowhunters bucket list. And if it’s not, it should be. But for first-timers, it can be a daunting task. But don’t worry, whether you’re chasing the thrill of the rut or hoping to bag your first elk, there are a few key tips that will help make your first elk hunt more successful and enjoyable. Here are my top 5 elk hunting tips for beginners!
By Alex Comstock
When it comes to bowhunting, there are countless releases on the market. Deciding what one to put to use can be somewhat intimidating. For a lot of people, testing all the different kinds of releases isn’t practical due to time restraints, etc.
By Alex Comstock
When it comes to saddle hunting, a question I get time and time again is how I set up a saddle and do it in one trip up the tree. One of the things I particularly love about saddle hunting is the mobile nature of it, and I can get up trees quickly and efficiently.
By Alex Comstock
When it comes to scouting, there are numerous things you should be thinking about and looking for. When it comes to scouting flatland, it can be rather challenging to not have terrain features to use to your advantage.
By Kaleb Comstock
The 2023 season was shaping up to be far different than I expected/hoped it to be. This past summer in Nebraska, we encountered our third straight drought year, a deer hunters worst nightmare. With a drought, you always run the risk for EHD. Despite a drought, my summer trail cameras looked beyond promising at the river farm with multiple shooters including bucks I called Splitz and Half Rack. Two 5.5 year olds pushing 160” and a handful of great 3 year olds. The anticipation was high going into the season.
By Kaleb Comstock
Running trail cams is such an exciting thing for me. The anticipation of a new giant showing up on a trail camera never goes away. Trail cameras can make your hopes as high as the sky and can also leave you feeling pretty much hopeless for shooting a mature deer depending on what your camera is catching. Late September and early October, in my opinion, is one of the most frustrating times to run trail cameras and my cameras slow down significantly. I think this happens for a few reasons, one being deer have now shed their velvet and are moving into their fall ranges. Over the years, I have learned some things that have helped me get more pictures during this time period.
By Kaleb Comstock
As we turn the calendar into late May, many states still have their turkey seasons open. Here in Nebraska, our season is open until May 31st. Hunting late season birds is a complete 180 compared to hunting early season turkeys. In the past week, I was able to fill my second, and last tag in Nebraska as well as having multiple close calls.
By Kaleb Comstock
Growing up in Nebraska, I’ve been blessed to be able to hunt in what I believe to be one of the best turkey hunting states in the country. Every year, the anticipation ramps up to start chasing gobblers in the spring. It is one of my all time favorite things to do. Over the years and hundreds of hunts and too many encounters to count, I have learned a lot when it comes to chasing turkeys. In this blog, I am going to dive into three turkey hunting tips that will hopefully help you be successful in the woods this spring season.
By Alex Comstock
This winter, we filmed and produce a three part video series covering numerous topics revolving around saddle hunting. In case you didn’t catch them on our YouTube channel, I wanted to share them with you here and provide a thought on each video on what I find to be most important when it comes to saddle hunting.
By Alex Comstock
As we’ve entered into the month of March, for most of the midwest, it’s peak shed season. I would venture to say that March is the most “popular” shed hunting month for most avid antler seekers. By now, most bucks have dropped their antlers and March is typically a great time to walk for antlers because the woods haven’t come close to greening up yet, and in a lot of places there’s little to no snow.
By Kaleb Comstock
Archery can be one of the most rewarding and frustrating things to get into. I have been shooting a bow for as long as I can remember and even shot my first turkey with a bow at the age of 8 years old. I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t shoot a bow. In this blog, I am going to dig into three tips to help beginner archers. These things will only help you out as you progress in your archery life.
By Alex Comstock
It’s crazy to me to think that in my neck of the woods, whitetail season has already been over for a month and a half. As I sit here in the middle of February, my mind is already racing and coming up with plans to make the 2023 whitetail season one of my best. The 2022 deer season was in large part one of my worst seasons ever and if you want to read more in depth on my 2022 reflection, you can HERE.
In this blog, I’m going to focus on this upcoming year and go over a month by month synopsis on what I’ll be doing to hopefully have more success than ever in 2023 and hopefully you’ll be able to glean some information from it that can help you as well.
By Kaleb Comstock
When it comes to killing big, mature, bucks, we need 150 plus acres of prime ground surrounded with unbelievable food and bedding, right? While that’s certainly my dream property, that’s definitely not the kind of property I have permission to hunt. Instead, I have access to less than 80 acres of nasty, thick river bottom that many people wouldn’t think would hold a big buck. That couldn’t be more false. I am going to dive into three things that I have learned from hunting this small property that has led me to kill four mature bucks in five seasons.
By Kaleb Comstock
Many people around the Midwest say that November 7th is their favorite day to be in the deer hunting woods. While that might be true for a lot of people, my favorite day to be in the deer hunting woods is December 4th. All jokes aside, December 4th has been a very good date for me when it comes to killing mature deer.
By Kaleb Comstock
Cellular Cameras have truly changed the way we hunt. There are many benefits of using cell cams, as well as some cons. In some states, cell cams aren’t even legal. In today’s blog, we are going to dive in and discuss the pros and cons of using cellular trail cameras.
By Kaleb Comstock
One of the most important things that I have learned as a hunter is how to internet scout. What I mean by internet scouting is I have learned how to read maps, topography, and food sources. Being a teacher, I need to maximize the number of opportunities I get to hunt which is why I rely so heavily on OnX Maps and internet scouting. OnX Maps is a piece of technology I utilize religiously, all year long no matter what I am hunting.
By Kaleb Comstock
As the calendar flips over to a new month, that means one thing, we are down to the final month before the season begins. In that final month, there is still a ton of deer work to be done. Trail cameras, treestand work, glassing and shooting my bow is what the next month has in store for me as we inch closer and closer to September 1st - opening day in Nebraska.
By Kaleb Comstock
As we turn the calendar to July, that means one thing. We are one month closer to opening day. In Nebraska, archery season opens up on September 1st. Time is ticking on finishing up our summer prep work to get prepared for the season. This year has us excited as we are tackling another new piece of property. A property we have high expectations for, the property we call “Plan B”. I picked up permission on Plan B in December of 2021.
By Kaleb Comstock
When I first got into hunting as a little boy, turkey hunting is where my roots laid. I can remember being a little boy going turkey hunting with my dad and following his every move, not really knowing what I was doing, I was just happy to be there. I will always remember the first bird I ever shot with my bow at the age of 8 years old. I remember that very first bird I called in all on my own. Turkey hunting has provided me with countless memories that will last a lifetime. As I have gotten older, my passion for turkey hunting has only grown. Throughout the years as I’ve gotten older, I have learned how to use what I learned from turkey hunting and put that towards becoming a better deer hunter. To me, watching a big tom coming straight down the pipe, full strut, spitting and drumming is equivalent to that 150” buck reading the script and walking straight down the trail.
One of the biggest mistakes people make shed hunting is looking for big full antlers with tines sticking up in the middle of deer trails. Truth is, that’s not reality 95% of the time. You pretty much have to “train” your eyes to spot antlers.
By Alex Comstock
As I write this blog post in mid-July, I’m coming off a few days of vacation. During vacation, I make it a priority not to work, as it’s easy for me to work on “vacation” as all I need is my phone to work in many cases. One thing I still found myself doing though throughout the last few days, as I do it almost every day this time of year is to open up my OnX hunt app and pour over maps all over. This past week, I was spending most of my time looking at our new property in Nebraska. Team member Kaleb Comstock and I have gotten access to quite possibly what could shape up to be the best deer hunting property I’ve ever had access to. Time will tell for sure, but based on what I believe, it’s going to be really good.
By Alex Comstock
It’s been awhile since I’ve come out with a new blog post. When WhitetailDNA first started 5 years ago, I had been publishing multiple blog posts per week. As the years went on, I transitioned to focusing most of my attention on YouTube, and publishing as many new videos as possible. As I did that, blog posts fell to the wayside for the most part. From here on out, I’m aiming to get back into publishing new blog posts weekly while I continue to pump out YouTube videos. So, whether you enjoy to watch videos or read (or both!) there will be the best of both worlds. Today, I want to focus on five summer tips for deer hunters and some things you can be doing over the next few months to help benefit what you accomplish in the fall.
By Alex Comstock
Today, I’m going to cover some underrated spots to locate antlers. In the last blog post, I covered some go-to shed hunting areas (which you can read HERE). The go-to spots are great, but these underrated spots can surely produce as well. So let’s jump into them.
By Alex Comstock
Wow, it’s been roughly six months since I’ve written a blog post here on WhitetailDNA. That’s pretty crazy, given that at one time, this was a site where I produced almost daily blog posts. Recently though, I’ve been giving most of my attention to my YouTube channel, where I’ve been producing weekly videos. If you want to go check those out, be sure to visit the YouTube channel HERE. This year, I’ll continue to produce weekly videos on the channel, but I’m going to get back to written content as well. You can look for new blog posts weekly.
By Alex Comstock
It’s amazing to me just how much trail cameras have developed over the years. From film, to digital, to now where a trail camera can snap a photo and seconds later you can be viewing that photo on your cell phone. If you take a second to stop and think about it, it’s fairly mind blowing. There can be some controversy though, over cellular trail cameras and for good reason. We’ll talk more about them this upcoming season, but today, I wanted to focus on three benefits of using a cellular trail camera and how they can help you.
By Alex Comstock
Spring scouting is no doubt important, and it’s a part of the puzzle you must put together to help you be more successful as a deer hunter. I want to make that clear from the outset. But, with that said, I also feel that some hunters out there put too much stock into spring scouting. How? Well that’s what I’m aiming to explain in today’s blog post.
By Alex Comstock
Being that we’re now into April, for most people, shed hunting is just wrapping up as your minds are probably turning to Turkey hunting. For me personally, as I look out my back deck window, all I see is snow still covering my backyard. Up here in Northern Minnesota, I’m typically a few weeks to a month behind most of the midwest when it comes to spring and April is usually my best month for finding sheds. So with that, today, I’m going to bring you ten of my favorite shed hunting tips.
By Kaleb Comstock
April is here, the weather is getting nicer and you might be thinking to yourself what could I do this weekend? A lot of people say your bucks are killed in the off-season. Whitetail season is 365 for us here at WhitetailDNA. We are constantly thinking about whitetails and putting in work to make our falls as successful as possible. In today’s blog we are going to dive into three things you could be doing in the off season to make sure your fall is as successful as possible.